Wednesday, April 30, 2008

:: Rickrollerz ::

The Rickrollerz 'Never Gonna Give You Up' (Strangers2Love)

There's an amzing buzz surrounding this remix of the 80's classic 'Never Gonna Give You Up' by ex-tea boy Rick Astley. This was and still is a massive party tune and was undoubtedly ripe for a noughties remix. The whole project apparently came from the internet craze of 'Rick-Rollering', where spam email links take visitors to the original video. The producers apparently got caught up in this craze and decided to re-work this wedding disco favourite. Personally, I don't believe a word of it!

I can't help but think that it's been a genius piece of viral marketing from the record company right from the beginning. PWL (Pete Waterman Limited), created hits for Rick Astley, Mel & Kim, Kylie, Jason, Bananarama, Dear Or Alive etc... and were masters of marketing in their hey-day. For example, in 1987 there was a white label 12" import that was being passed around DJ's and dance music fans of a supposed cool underground track from the USA called 'Roadblock'. It turned out to be the clever little scamps at PWL. Many, many, many people fell for the campaign before the track hit the shops under the group name of SAW (Stock, Aitken and Waterman) and 'Roadblock' became a massive hit for them, just like everything else they touched.

Welcome back Mr. Astley and perhaps I should say welcome back Pete and the PWL hit factory! ;¬)

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

:: Plastic Bag vs. Paper Bag ::

Charging the public for carrier bags is another example of ill-thought out and ill-advised decision making. Whilst shopping the other day for a lunchtime snack I was charged 10 pence for requiring two small plastic carrier bags to transport my purchases. Being a bloke, I don’t tend to walk about carrying a handbag, or any spare plastic carrier bags! So, chances are I will always have to purchase one when suddenly deciding to buy a snack, or a new shirt! Unless of course I:

a) Keep a plastic bag in my pants for emergency use.
b) Acquire a man-bag/bum-bag/fannypack....
c) Stop shopping completely and survive by eating my own waste.

Whilst I am happy to help attack the huge problem of non-biodegradable plastic carrier bags littering the planet, I fail to see how charging punters is a solution. Surely it would be better to use paper bags!? Paper is bio-degradeable and the bags can be made from already re-cycled paper waste.

John Lennon's inspiration for his 'Plastic Oh No Ban'!

Incensed by this thought and feeling the pain again in my wallet as Gordon Brown (yes, he gets the blame) and the corporate suits steal more of my hard-earned wedge, I went home and hit the web for some answers. It seems that the paper bag manufacturers are quite angry too. See here.

However, it seems that the plastic bag is not really the true villain and that they are more eco-friendly than first thought. See here.

It did occur to me whilst I was in the queue to buy my limp over-priced sandwich, a packet of crisps, a fruit smoothie, a 3 pack of socks and a slice of the most amazing chocolate flapjack in the world, that the packaging enclosing my purchases was far more harmful to the environment than the sodding bags I was about to be charged for!

My whole experience was brilliantly punctuated by a very lad-di-da lady in front of me in the queue, who loaded her shopping into hessian re-useable bags and walked purposefully out of the shop with an air of eco-authority. I followed her with my purchases swinging in my 10 pence plastic bags, thinking about how this whole issue was perfect material for my blog. I then watched as the posh-eco-woman clambered into her Porsche Cayenne (4.8 litre, V8 petrol, averaging 14mpg) and booted it up the high street! Shall I explain it to her, or will you?

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

:: Intro-Inspection ::

If only you could have seen the huge smile on my face when I played out the brilliant 'Intro-Inspection' by Osymyso on my radio show last night on FIRE 107.6FM. I've wanted to give this incredible production some exposure from when I first picked it up in 2002. Last night, the time was right. The FIRE audience were ready, and wow they really enjoyed it! I was inundated with texts and emails, so thank you if you got in touch.
~
Mark 'Osymyso' Nicholson's creation, 'Intro-Inspection' features 101 intros to popular songs, blended together into the biggest pop quiz challenge you'll ever face! Even though this mix has been around for years, it has really only been DJ's and mix fans that have had the pleasure of enjoying this mind-melting 12 minutes of madness! Being able to share it with the FIRE audience last night was great and made me very happy indeed, as that's what the PURE FIRE slot (from 8pm Mon > Fri) is about and is what makes FIRE unique amongst the blandness of UK radio.

Check out Osymyso's other work on his website. Quirky is probably the best word to describe Mark's work, with his Eastenders creation 'Pat'n'Peg' still one of my all time favourite Osymyso productions. Long may he reign as one of the kings of the pop culture/mash-up scene.

The full tracklisting for Intro-Inspection is here.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

:: P...p...p...pick up a penguin ::

I'm not a fan of April Fools gags. Mainly because they're normally rubbish aren't they!? A classic from years ago was when the BBC's Panorama programme duped viewers into believing that spaghetti was harvested from trees. See the clip here. (It really isn't if you're having to think about that.)

This year, the BBC surpassed themselves with the following news bulletin.

I saw this first thing yesterday morning on the BBC News 24 breakfast show and thoroughly enjoyed watching Bill Turnbull and Sian Williams only just managing to maintain their poker faces! The production took weeks of filming, 3d modelling and green-screen wizadry, with the icing on the cake being the cameo role by Terry 'Python' Jones. As spoofs go, it's a classic! See how it was made here.